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Cheese Fondu

A baked cheese soufflé made with butter, milk, flour, eggs, grated cheese, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Fondu

six persons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt an ounce of butter and whisk into it a pint of boiled milk.

  2. Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of flour in a gill of cold milk, add it to the boiled milk and let it cool.

  3. Beat the yolks of four eggs with a heaping teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper and five ounces of grated cheese.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt an ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Mix smoothly with it one ounce of flour, a pinch of salt and cayenne and a quarter of a pint of milk.

  3. Simmer the mixture gently over the fire, stirring it all the time, till it is as thick as melted butter.

  4. Stir into it about three ounces of finely-grated parmesan, or any good cheese.

  5. Turn it into a basin and mix with it the yolks of two well-beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk three whites to a solid froth.

  2. Just before the souffle is baked, put the whites into it.

  3. Pour the mixture into a small round tin.

  4. It should be only half filled, as the fondu will rise very high.

  5. Pin a napkin around the dish in which it is baked.

  6. Bake twenty minutes and serve the moment it leaves the oven.

  7. It would be well to have a metal cover strongly heated.

  8. Time twenty minutes. Sufficient for six persons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1019Calories
45 gProtein
43 gFat
111 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites and yolks give the fondue its light, risen structure as it sets in the oven.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to add rich flavour and a stretchy, savoury body.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the cheese and eggs together.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavour through the roux-style sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, cooked with flour to a smooth, thick custard.

The step that matters

Adding the whipped whites. Whites must be whipped to a solid froth and folded in just before baking. Their trapped air is what makes the fondue rise; if they deflate or wait too long, it will be flat and dense.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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